Talent Circles

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Guy Kawasaki joins Canva: The art of the continuous start

My friend Guy Kawasaki announced to me that he had accepted the
chief evangelist position at Australian startup Canva. This young
company wants to create a "a new world
of design" and made its stealthy debuta few months ago by landing $3M in seed
money from prominent Silicon Valley VCs and celebrities. And now, with Guy on their team, it's really on the worldwide stage.

Kudos to Canva for bringing Guy in. Yes, nobody is too famous not to be asked to
join a startup. The founders, Melanie
Perkins (CEO) and Cliff Obrecht, are both gutsy
and logical. "Peggy Fitzpatrick brought the company to my attention,
and she showed me why its service is so useful. There are some blog posts that
are very difficult to illustrate with a picture because of the complexity of
the concept or copyright issues of using a picture from the post. Canva solves
this problem," Guy said. Since Guy was an enthusiastic user, Melanie and Cliff
simply asked him to join. Brilliant entrepreneurs are brilliant recruiters.
Period.

Was it hard to convince Guy? No. Having
known Guy for... over twenty-five years, I know that he is not a diva and will
never be. "From
the time of first contact to the time we had a deal, it was three weeks. I met
Melanie and Cliff simultaneously," Guy noted. It's a
short time. But why should it be long? For Guy:

It's all about meaning. It's the best reason to create a company, product or
service, and the best reason to join a team. "I
love the democratizing of things so that people without power, pedigree and
money have more opportunities. At Apple, we democratized computers. I admire
that Google democratized information and that eBay democratized commerce. With
my self-publishing book and efforts, I helped to democratize writing. Canva
gives me the opportunity to democratize one more sector, design, because it
enables people to create amazingly simple graphic design. If you think about
it, there are so many circumstances where it’s hard to make great graphics:
eBay ads, Etsy stores, posts and profile photos for every social-media service,
IAB ads, Facebook ads, presentations, business cards, email graphics… there’s a
lot of ways to use Canva, just like there are a lot of ways to use a
Macintosh."

It's all about building a strong
company with focused people.
Guy's due diligence was straightforward: "We had a few Skype chats, a dozen or
so emails and two face-to-face meetings. They passed all the tests that I threw
at them:

What kind of option plan do you have?
Answer: standard Silicon Valley deal: four year vesting. Check!

Who is your lawyer? Answer: Orrick in
Menlo Park. Check!

Can Peg and I do your social media? Answer: Yes, we'd love you to?
Check!

... And he was quickly impressed with the practical, no-nonsense
approach of Canva’s team: “I introduced
them to a huge potential partner. This partner suggested that the first step be
creating a Canva app and putting it in its app directory. Melanie did not
respond to the company anything along the lines of ‘we’re looking for a more
strategic relationship.’ Rather, she said that she understands and that
creating an app for its directory was a very good first step. Let’s just say
that most Silicon Valley CEOs would have copped a very different attitude.

A
couple of days ago, I suggested changes to the text on the Canva website. After
two rounds of suggestions, Melanie gave me a password to edit the website
directly. Some of the companies I’ve worked with completely ignored my
suggestions. For a year, I asked one to let me make social-media posts on its
behalf and never got permission."

Guy is the famous author of twelve books, all basically revolving about entrepreneurship and
the art of changing the world for the better. What I like about his decision is
this: He talks the talk and walks the walk. Guy is not
an accidental entrepreneur in the sole business of lecturing other
entrepreneurs or some milquetoast afraid to go for anything new because
what he has accomplished is great.

He is jumping into the fray once
again: "No more ‘punditry’ and ‘expert
advice.’ This job is about ‘doing,’ not ‘advising,’ he
adds. My guess is that this alone will make his public speaking even more
desirable... How many experts exhibit this type of personal leadership? Great
careers are not a linear path, but rather a continuous re-invention of oneself
with an ability to check one’s ego and pre-conceived notions of greatness at
the door. Add to all this something truly extraordinary about Guy's new
move: He is going to work for a woman who is half his age. Only a truly “mensch”
can do this.